24/07/2020
To whom it may concern.
To Public school Class of 2020
Compiled by Mpho WaMoAforika from thoughts of concerned Citizens and Fellow Comrades in different fields of study.
learners can bring radical change not only in their country but in their schooling system like the likes of Tsietsi and Eric Moloba have fought the apartheid schooling system. it is high time the class of 2020 challenge their schooling system that favours those who are privileged because learners in private school are learning and their academic year is not cancelled and rescheduled. To all class of 2020 in Public schools, keep it in your subconscious minds and hearts that education is not a privilege but a human right.
Even if public school learners make it to varsity next year they will struggle because some of us really struggled in our first years even when we had the full academic year in our matric so imagine what will happen to those who never had the full academic year. They will not only struggle academically but emotionally as well because we all know the inferiority complex that comes with university. DBE must plan online learning 4 all learners cause besides Covid 19 we need technology in our education system cause 4 I.R is here.
never lose Hope Black Child you are not alone in the struggle. THE SYSTEM HAS ALWAYS FAVOURED THE PRIVILAGED. NELSON MANDELA EXPLICITLY ALLUDED IN HIS RIVONIA TRIAL SPEECH THAT HE IS ANTI-Marxist, AND ONLY ADVOCATED FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM FORGETING ECONOMIC FREEDOM WHICH IS THE IMPORTANT ASPECT OF POLITICAL FREEDOM THAT WOULD HAVE BROUGHT US FREE QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL. This system is based on "The survival of the fittest system". "Basically, they saying children in private schools won't get corona or their chances are very slim because of their "private immune system”?? ☹️
There is a disaster heading our way as a Black generation! How 2020 Matric be valuated because the issue of credibility, fairness, Reliability and Validity is not taken into consideration. or maybe it’s because Learners in private schools have their own colleges and universities awaiting after matric🤷🏽♂?? its panful to be Black and poor. The kids of the very same cabinet members who are taking decisions are continuing learning like normal whilst the poor and underprivileged is marginalized and side lined.
"We must never even shy away from the fact that; it has always been about money. "The haves and the have nots" ... Education is expensive in South Africa, that which is free, is obfuscated and unlikely to create an active participant of the society, if it does, that particular individual will be working for the one who bought education from preschool as opposed to the one who got it freely.... exclusion of the poor in education has always been there"
we need to reflect on the role played by Student Politics in Challenging the Apartheid system. The role played by Varsity students in giving learners courage to fight and consciousness about the realities of their struggles. we need to take inspiration form Biko generation and the 1976 students/ learners. Today learners (high school learner's) are Politically illiterate. its students in varsity’s and a few concerned citizens who are critically and consciously aware bout what is happening within the system of Education. They are fully aware of Black Systematic exclusion in institutions of learning, not only higher learning. I think we need to start Political Education in our Neighbourhoods/ Townships like the Generation of Biko, Tsietsi and others did. Learners will not challenge what they don't know. They need political consciousness.
We need to start teaching kids in our Kasis/ townships what we know. Exchange knowledge an Ideas with them and raise Black consciousness ideologies. On weekends they are busy smoking, drinking, and doing s*x cz there is really nothing that drives them to change the society. That is the reason we have so many Black individuals who cannot even think for themselves and practical solutions to their struggles. we. we like a lost, confused mentally disturbed young generation killing each other like we are cockroaches. Slowly but surely the minds of Black youth will be clear and free from post-Apartheid and Slavery Psychological Trauma if there's a will and strong desire for those who are critical and conscious bout the realities of Black struggles to teach and share wisdom with the ignorant citizens and those struggling in the chains of mental slavery.
The address by the President Explicitly gave us a clear call for One Exam, One Curriculum, One system of Teaching and Learning. This thing of IEB and NSC curriculums perpetuates inequalities.
The system has instilled FEAR in all of us to a point that we are even afraid of expressing our views in a democratically elected government because the system has been set in a way that it deals with those in front, so the masses later prefer expressing themselves from the back, simply because of fear of being dealt with, and that is as a results of being sold out by your own people. when you speak out and share enlightening knowledge you must face the consequences of which is what I am prepared to face if needs be.
If learners in Public schools can be consciousness of how brutal the education system is then I believe we will have a mass action which is not what I encourage or advocate in these times of covid 19, but but but... it is not everyone who will agree with this long piece of writing and its ok because it is historically proven that it has always been difficult to convince a subconscious colonized being/ mind! But it's worth a try 😊.... Meanwhile let us do what Steve Biko would have done and died fighting for... Let us wear our Black skin with pride, get up and fight for change! never lose hope Grade 12 in a Public school. your Ancestors who have been fighting the same battle you are fighting are watching you. open your Books and study on your own, as Steve Biko repeatedly enlightened us that " Black man you are on your own"
NEVER LOSE HOPE CLASS OF 2020.
Compiled by Mpho WaMoAforika from thoughts of concerned Citizens and Fellow Comrades in different fields of study.
Wa lena Motlogolo:
Mpho waAforika (concerned citizen)
